Ten-year-old Junior is thrilled and a bit nervous about moving from an El Paso barrio to the house his father has purchased in an Anglo part of town. His mother, who speaks only Spanish, is somewhat less thrilled, especially when she finds out the family will be living in the subterraneo--a dark, unfinished basement--until the white family renting the house above moves out. As the ever-optimistic Pop works to improve his family's situation by adding an apartment to the back of the house, Junior and his little brother make friends with Tim and Kim, the children living above them. But soon tensions erupt--between Junior's mother and Tim and Kim's parents, between Pop and co-workers at his new job, and between Tim and Boogie, Junior's friend from the barrio--and these conflicts reshape Junior's relationships with family and friends and threaten the new world his father is striving to create.